Disposals have already raised £4.6billion in the past month
and BP had initially declared a target of up to £7billion this year.

But the firm now says it must speed up sales to help it offset
the cost of the spill, as well as reducing its net debt of nearly
£15billion to between £6.4billion and £9.6billion.

Assets on the block will include gas projects in Vietnam and
Pakistan, worth around £1billion, while BP's 60 per cent stake in Latin
American venture Pan American is also thought to be up for grabs, with
a price tag of around £6billion.

And Dudley conceded that while it is 'not our intention to exit the Gulf ', other businesses in the US could also be sold.

The statement raises the prospect that BP could reopen talks to sell
half of its 26 per cent stake in the Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska.

The investment was the subject-of interest from US firm Apache until it lost interest due to the near-£7billion asking price.

Hayward added that the disposals would simply transform BP from
a 4.5million barrel per day to a 3.5million barrel per day company,
noting that BP would 'still be producing more oil and gas than shell'.

Dudley promised a fresh emphasis on safety, an issue that was
supposed to be Hayward's forte until the Deepwater Horizon explosion.

He said BP was 'willing to hold ourselves to a higher standard' than rivals.

But his comments may come back to haunt him. Hayward promised a
'laser-like' focus on safety when he took over from former boss Lord
Browne in 2007.